ISLAMABAD: Chairman Pakistan People’s Party Bilawal Bhutto Zardari on Monday proposed to allies of the government including BNP (Mengal) and MQM that if the government did not bring legislation to criminalize the enforced disappearance then the BNP (Mengal) should not vote to the government in the imminent budget.
“Dr Shireen Mazari gave a commitment on the floor of the House for criminalizing the enforced disappearances and if we have to force the government to fulfill its promise to criminalize the enforced disappearance then the Akhtar Mengal party should not vote in the upcoming anti-people budget,” he said while giving the briefing to the media after chairing the meeting of Standing Committee of the National Assembly on Human Rights, which was held on Monday at the Parliament House.
Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, who heads the Standing Committee of the National Assembly on Human Rights, said the issue of forced disappearances and deprivation of people of Balochistan was raised by Sardar Akhtar Mengal and the PTI government promised to take up this issue. He said the party of Sardar Akhtar Mengal also put the issue of missing persons in its manifesto and voted the PTI government. “I suggested that Sardar Akhtar Mengal should not vote to the government’s upcoming budget for not declaring the forced disappearance of the persons as a crime and in this way Akhtar Mengal could force the government to pass the legislation to declare the disappearance as a crime,” he said.
Bilawal Bhutto Zardari also announced to hold meeting of the Standing Committee of Human Rights in Balochistan soon to resolve the issues relating to the province. He said the Ex-Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry took a suo moto notice of missing persons and the Parliament is waiting for the good decision from the Judiciary but unfortunately no development taken place with regard to suo moto notice of the missing persons, he said.
He said it was only the PPP which talked about the missing persons in its manifesto and now it was encouraging that other political parties were also talking about the resolution of this human tragedy. “When the government itself stated that the forced disappearance is a crime then there should be no hurdle in it,” he said adding that the government should not pass on the issue of missing persons between Law Ministry and Human Rights Ministry.
Bilawal said Prime Minister Imran Khan had also promised with Sardar Akhtar Mengal and also with the MQM to fulfill the promise. He also expressed concern over the increase of crimes against women and proposed for the appointment of Special Prosecutors in crimes against women.
The Chairman Standing Committee on Human Rights said the PTI government has registered the FIR against Journalist Shahzeb Jilani who presented his stance before the committee. “The committee has summoned the head of the FIA in the next meeting regarding Shahzeb Jilani case,” he said. Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said if there was no freedom of expression then how could the voices be raised for the basic human rights. “I may not agree with your opinion but will fight for your right to freedom of expression,” he said.
The PPP chairman said the concerned agencies were supposed to present their half yearly reports to in the Parliament. “But unfortunately these reports were not presented in the Parliament,” he said. He said the FIA neglected their SOPs and law in the case of Shahzeb Jilani and the FIA has to respond into this matter. “We will examine in the next meeting of the committee that why the FIA did not follow the law of the land,” he said.
Bilawal said the matters of the National Commission on Status of Women, Rights of Disabled Persons, and issue of harassment in offices, day-care centers, Zainab case and the matter of seven bills will also come under discussion during the meeting.
He said attitude of few members of Balochistan Assembly on bringing the sick daughter of MPA in Balochistan Assembly was not proper. “The establishment day-care center for the children of working mothers is necessary,” he said. He said the PPP Senators approved the bill for establishment of day-care center from the Senate and hoped that it would also be passed from the National Assembly. He said the Human Rights Committee has formed the sub-committee to approve the bills regarding the Human Rights and after approval from the Committee the bill would be sent to the Parliament for the approval.
Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said the government informed in the previous meeting of the Human Rights Committee that the anti-torture bill would be presented in the meeting of the cabinet for approval but it was not presented in the cabinet due to some issues relating to Ministry of Law and Justice. He said the government was not moving ahead the bill regarding the missing persons. “I think the government was neglecting the Ministry of the Human Rights and the standing committee as the government referred bills to the ministries and doing nothing on it,” he said.
To a question regarding the issue of Rao Anwar in the Human Right Committee, Bilawal said Rao Anwar issue was not on the agenda of the committee as one member who did not know about the rules and regulations raised this issue. “We have already given clarification on declaring Rao Anwar “Bahdur Bacha (brave child),” he said. Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said he did not know whether the clarification of the ISI letter comes or not and he did not get answer of this question yet. He said we did not raise the issue of only Rao Anwar as we are also victim of extra judicial killings. “I always seen using of weapon of extra judicial killing against my family,” he said.
Earlier, the meeting of Standing Committee of the National Assembly on Human Rights was held with the chair of its Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari. During the meeting, the chairman directed for review of Cyber Crime Bill.
The ministry briefed the committee on the implementation status of the previous recommendations and gave a briefing on proposed legislation against torture.
The ministry apprised the committee that the draft bill against torture was under process with the Ministry of Law and might be on the agenda of the next cabinet meeting.
The ministry also highlighted the issue pertaining to the division of mandates amongst various ministries under Rules of Business, 1973, and informed that a number of matters had been delayed owing to overlapping subject matters of the different ministries/divisions.
The ministry also briefed the committee about the compliance of international obligations related to human rights and informed that there had been a lack of coordination from the respective provinces on the subject matter.
The chairman NCSW briefed the committee about the working and performance of the Commission. It was briefed that the NCSW was facing problems in collection of authentic data due to lengthy legal process and lack of resources.
The committee was also apprised regarding implementation of the NCSW Act.
It was told that the Commission was dependent on the Ministry and Gender Crime Cell for its outreach projects.
The Committee recommended that Babar Awan would also be requested to attend the next meeting of the Committee as a special invitee.
The Committee also appointed a Sub-Committee to steer and scrutinize the pending legislative matters before the Committee.
The meeting was attended by Saifur Rehman, Atta Ullah, Ms. Kishwar Zehra, Ms. Ghazala Saifi, Ms. Rukhsana Naveed, Ms. Fouzia Behram, Ms. Shunila Ruth, Agha Hassan Baloch, Ms. Shaista Pervaiz, Abdul Rehman Khan Khanju, Ms. Shazia Marri, Dr. Mahreen Razzaq Bhutto, James Iqbal, Ms. Aliya Kamran, Farhatullah Babar (Special invitee) and Ms. Shireen Mazari, Minister for Human Rights and officers of the Human Rights ministry.